Kagaya Izakaya is the best restaurant experience in Tokyo. It is also the craziest restaurant experience of my life.
Access
Kagaya is a small izakaya in Minato, Tokyo. Because of the limited size, I would recommend making reservations. In order to find Kagaya, follow the simple map provided here: map (please click on that link, it is the greatest map of all time).
Atmosphere
The restaurant itself is pretty unassuming. There are about 4 tables set in front of the kitchen area. By simply looking around the restaurant, one has no idea what is in store for the evening.
Warning!
Let me state this right away. If you plan to go to Kagaya, do not read any further. Go on a whim and be surprised.
The Experience Begins
I hope you watched the embedded video above. The man, Kagaya, is the owner/server/entertainment and in the video he is welcoming the table and serving the hot towels with his pet robot. He is amazing. This welcome is a great way to prepare guests for what awaits them. They will be touched, they will be humiliated, and they will laugh their asses off. I love this man.
Menu
After being welcomed, Kagaya gives you the menu. Of course, he doesn’t just “give” you the menu, he shoots the menu at you theatrically miming a radar tower searching for a target. Stop asking questions!
The “menu” is barely a menu. Instead, you can pick your drink, then you pick your country. The country selection is how Kagaya will serve you the meal. Once you have made your selection, you can’t simply tell Kagaya what you want. That would be too normal. You must sing to him with prepared lyrics. We chose England.
Yup…I got nothing.
More Fun
Throughout the dinner there are other shenanigans. We saw one table get served a beer stein that constantly laughs when picked up. Someone else had to drink out of a mug that shakes. In the bathroom there are dolls that laugh at you. The chopstick holders were various figures – we got a tiger and a sports car which he stated meant Renata was a tiger in the bed room while I was fast like a sports car. He also continued to “forget” people’s names and call them something else, like our poor friend at another table named “DICKson.”
Other Countries
Here are the other countries we saw the night we were there.
France:
Renata also had her drawing done, which at the end of the drawing he had his way with her image.
Japan:
USA:
Kagaya Website
Book tickets here on Voyagin